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Salsa Therapy's 3rd birthday party (10th July 2010)

Headed out to Crossways Community Centre on Roxburgh St in Mt Victoria around 9pm this evening to attend Salsa Therapy’s 3rd birthday celebration. How time flies – it has been 3 years since Ramnish and Lily first started Salsa Therapy and they continued to excel in the salsa community teaching Latin dances, performing and organising salsa events around town, and I’m glad to have been a part of their successes too :)

Cost $10 cover charge and only juices and soft drinks (and water, of course!) were available on site served by Lily’s husband, Carlos, who welcomed guests with his broad smile and a warm hug as people arrived at the door. Robert and Lily alternated DJ-ing Latin tunes as us dancers twirled and grooved on the wooden dance floor. This was my first time dancing at this new venue and I could actually dance tonight! My sprained ankle hasn’t healed 100% but since the physio gave me the green light to continue on with my activities, I’m doing exactly that! It has been such a long time since I last danced salsa and it was fun getting back onto the dance floor – I had several awesome dances with the usual misfits including a sexy Bachata dance with Rodney which I had to hike my dress up (a bit only, really!) just so I can move with ease. We laughed after the dance when he saw me pull on the hem of my dress haha :P I also did a silent rueda with Ramnish and gang. That’s right, you heard me – no one did the move calls during the dance and the leads just passed the girls around went the opportunity came up. Us girls had no idea what was going on but followed the leads moves accordingly. What a mess it was but good fun!

Lots of catching up with friends and rest in between dances for my slightly sore ankle (the physio said it’s normal to feel sore after activities and the tenderness will subside with time). As I sat by the steps watching people dancing the night away, I felt a pang of emptiness and this seems to be a common occurrence these days whenever I attend salsa events. I wonder if it was because of the years of history that had unfolded while I was active in the salsa dance scene (memories from the past sometimes creep into my head), or more the fact my close friends were leaving one after another that the dance scene now feels foreign to me, in the sense whenever I turn up to an event, I hardly know anyone. It didn’t help that Ramnish and Antje were leaving too for Germany in 2 weeks to start a brand new life there. I will miss them dearly – though I know of their plans to move for awhile now, it still saddens me when good friends leave :(

Oh and if you were wondering what’s happening to Salsa Therapy with Ramnish’s departure, not to worry, Ramnish’s dance double, Robert, will be stepping into Ramnish’s role and continue teaching classes and organising events with Lily. I’m not surprised that we’ll hear from Ramnish in a few months that he’s started his own dance classes somewhere in Germany!

Around 11.30pm, the party took a pause to sing the birthday song and Ramnish and Lily cutting the birthday cake. Lily also had a star-shaped piñata filled with candy and several free class vouchers stuffed in it that she got Robert and Rodney to put up. No one in the crowd came forth to hit the piñata so Rodney stepped up to the task in hand, smacking it with a broomstick blindfolded. We all cracked up at Rodney’s spectacular whack, sending the piñata flying to one corner of the hall and bent the broomstick! It was such a hilarious sight haha! I guess that concluded the piñata game and the dancing continued on after people scrambled to collect the lollies scattered on the dance floor.

Left the party around 12am, dropping Chris home on the way. Hmm, feels odd and sad coming home to no one and climbing in to an empty, cold bed. 2 more days, just 2 more and Jono will be back…